Burdisso after the two bronzes looks ahead: “A lot of work on the 200, I wasn’t a surprise”

The well-deserved holidays in Sardinia, after eight months without ever taking a break, until the success of the two Olympic bronzes; then, in September, he flew to the United States, to Evanston, Illinois, where he is expected to study Economics with a statistical address from Northwestern University. Federico Burdisso is packing his bags in his home in Pavia: today he will leave for a few weeks of relaxation. But the 19-year-old swimmer from Pavia is already looking ahead to the European Championships and the World Championships that await him next year (perhaps with the double challenge in the long and short course), and even further on, at the Paris Games of 2024, ” around the corner ”, sportingly speaking. “Chicco”, the first Italian to win an Olympic medal in the butterfly specialty, clearly makes it clear that he considers the Tokyo company only a beginning, not a point of arrival or the apex of an already successful career – just think of this extraordinary 2021 which, in addition to the Olympic laurels, has also seen him conquer silver and bronze at the European Championships in Budapest, and gold for the Italians – but which can still give him a lot.

The return to Pavia

«The return to Pavia? I celebrated with my family – Federico says – then in early September I think there will be a public ceremony. The bronze in the 200 butterfly was not a surprise, it was somehow estimated, on that I worked a lot together with my coach Simone Palombi. The third place in the relay, on the other hand, was unexpected, even if the result of the European Championships encouraged us ». For a month, in Japan, Fede lived in the armored hood of the Olympic Village: «Tamponi every day – he explains – is strictly forbidden to go out. In Tokyo, I only saw what you could see on the bus on the way to the swimming stadium. Stop. It means that I will have to go back as a tourist ».

The boy confessed that he suffered the tension of the Games, the expectation of challenges that no longer saw him as a simple outsider but with the weight of a result to be achieved. “From this point of view – observes his coach Simone Palombi, head of the Aurelia Swimming in Rome – the experience accumulated in Tokyo can only have been useful to him, in the sense of managing and metabolizing stress”. Weak points to work on? «For sure Federico needs to improve the last lap in the 200, probably an emotional factor has an impact and even on this we can do better; The 200 butterfly and mixed relay remain the strengths, but at the moment there is no intention of setting aside the 100 ». Upon returning from Sardinia, we will have to plan for the future, with the training plan during the stay in the States, a roadmap to be made compatible with the study.